Bad news for those expecting to play Fable this year: it’s being delayed until 2026.
Crag Duncan, the Head of Xbox Game Studios, recently appeared on the Official Xbox Podcast with Tina Amini to deliver the news.
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While Duncan says he is excited about the game’s progress and where developer Playground Games is with things, he admits they need more time. “I know that’s not maybe the news people want to hear,” he told Amini, “what I want to assure people of is that it’s definitely worth the wait.”
He went to bat for Playground, citing their success with the Forza Horizon franchise in an extended quote.
And I just, I have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team. If you think about their history and legacy for Forza Horizon, the last two games critically acclaimed…Award-winning, beautiful, played great. And just what they’re bringing to Fable as a franchise, just think of the visuals of what you expect of Playground Games, plus amazing game play, British humor, Playground’s version of Albion, so inspired by what’s gone before with the franchise, but their take. And quite frankly, the most beautifully realized version of Albion you’ve ever seen. So really excited about the plans and really excited about the future and I want the community to understand that we do these things for the best of the games, and the teams, and ultimately that results in the best games, or the best game for the community.
Team Xbox Only Has One Shot to Reboot Fable Successfully
It’s hard to believe that the Fable franchise used to be a tentpole for the Xbox brand, but it’s true. While the original Xbox game failed to deliver on its lofty and unrealistic expectations, it was still a fantastic action-oriented RPG. Fable 2 for the Xbox 360 is an incredible follow-up that holds up extraordinarily well today.
However, since then, the Fable franchise has fallen by the wayside. Fable 3 was a disappointment, and it’s been nothing but spin-offs for the past 15 years.
We’ve seen Xbox stumble with attempts to bring back their iconic franchise before. Halo Infinite isn’t a bad game, but it failed to capture the audience as past Halo titles did. With Playground hard at work on Fable, we haven’t seen a Forza Horizon game since 2021. Banjo-Kazooie inexplicably is sitting on the sidelines. Starfield failed to live up to the hype and has people questioning how good the next Elder Scrolls games will be.
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Fable’s four minutes of footage have already won me over.
It makes sense for Fable to spend some extra time in the oven, especially since it will not compete with Grand Theft Auto 6 now. We can only hope that the wait will be worth it.
We have some new pre-alpha footage, and the game looks impressive. However, it remains to be seen if it has the same charm and wit as past Fable games.
